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Tosti-locos & Micheladas at El Take It Easy

El Take it Easy. It sounds like a disco in Cozumel, I know. But this new North Park gastro-cantina is cloaked in the dim-lit atmosphere of a modern gastropub and soaked in mostly Mexican fare.

And with the guidance of serial restaurateur Jay Porter, his chef at The Linkery up the street and Jair Téllez, a Mexican chef and restaurateur, 30th Street now has spiffy tosti-locos like you’d buy on a border wait, and spicy Micheladas ($5-$6) with your recommended daily allowance of chili powder, lime, salt and Lagunita Pils beer.

My new drink: Me gusta mucho la Calimocho, that is, I’d rather not drink the well-known hangover remedy, the Michelada. At least not first. Give me the Calimocho ($5): red wine, Coca Cola and citrus over ice. The soda sugars smooth out the tannins, and you suck it through a straw probably faster than you should.

The food: I’ll have to go back hungry for their selection of small plates – from octopus tostada ($7) and rabbit taquitos ($7) to goose cazuela ($14) and grilled beef cheek ($11). The menu changes "continually based on local harvests," the El Take site says. But you can always expect gourmet fowl, fish and beasts of the field, secured using Porter's farm-to-table philosophy.

Get there: I might’ve overlooked El Take's outdoor signage; finding the entrance almost requires your iPhone compass app. Walk north past Ranchos to where Apertivo used to be, walk through the skinny patio toward a solid wood wall and just before your nose touches a splinter, head south. There’s the entrance.

El Take It Easy, 3926 30th St. Open nightly at 6, closed Tuesdays. Get a look at the menu here.